


The World is Not Enough

by kaijusizefeels



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Gen, Hansencest only if you squint really really hard, M/M, Morally Ambiguous Character, Seriously morally gray, morally gray
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-09
Updated: 2013-10-09
Packaged: 2017-12-28 21:39:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/997061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaijusizefeels/pseuds/kaijusizefeels
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Herc and Chuck deserts the PPDC on the eve of Operation Pitfall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The World is Not Enough

**Author's Note:**

> This story came out of an entirely too long tumblr thread where we were discussing Chuck's rather pointless death and Stacker's evaluation of him. Go through the threads if you're interested (http://azilver.tumblr.com/post/63292550389/the-canter-is-the-cure-watched-pacific-rim-again). 
> 
> The muse woke me up at 5AM and this is the result.
> 
> I think I've managed to give everyone a fair and rational explanation of their reactions and reasons. I deliberately left the ending to the reader. I have my idea of what happens to them but I think it works better ambiguous. 
> 
> Also, I'm curious if people think that I've actually created a worser ending for the Hansens than canon.

"Get out of here. Go take Max for a walk." He tells Chuck just to get him out of the medical personnels way; the boy is suffocating him with hesitant touches and worried eyes. 

"Your arm is broken." They sticks it into a sling. "It will take at least 4 weeks to heal."

"I don't have weeks!" He yells at them. The bomb drop is suppose to happen within the hour.

It was a damned stupid rookie mistake, he berets himself after he sends Chuck away. He tries to move the broken arm experimentally and hisses in pain despite the painkillers they gave him. No way is he piloting Striker any time soon.

Stacker and Tendo comes to him grim faced.

"God damn it," he says in lieu of nothing better. "God damn it all. Looks like we're sitting this one out." 

"We can't lose Striker." Tendo points out. "That was the plan."

"Chuck's good but he can't pilot Striker on his own." 

"No." And Stacker looks more pained than before. "He won't have to. It's been a while but I haven't forgotten. I'll take the bomb run with Chuck. Raleigh and Mako can cover our six."

"But you're --- " Tendo cries out; Stacker holds up a hand to silence him.

Herc finishes the sentence in his head, dying. 'You're dying, Stacker' echoes in his head and something dark and bitter twists within him. A pit opens.

"No guarantee that you and Chuck will be compatible," he points out gruffly. 

"We'll make it work." Stacker stares at him straight in the eye. Herc knows all the tricks experienced pilots can use to maintain the neural link _work_ , but its all smokes and mirrors.

"We have to," he says quietly and Herc can only give him a small nod in acquiesce. _For the world._

///

Chuck is surprised to see Stacker in a drive suit. Herc knows that Stacker hasn't piloted in at least a decade. He goes over to stand next to Chuck when Stacker motions Mako aside.

"Dad?" He looks like a little boy, in that ballcap and jacket combo, Max on a leash. 

"Arm's busted." 

Chuck nods, tight lipped and grim faced but says nothing.

Stacker gets up and makes a speech that Herc barely hears. Chuck is twisting Max's leash over and again in his hand, lost in thought. When the applause die down, he hands the leash over to Herc and leaves with a soft "I need to suit up."

Chuck has grown up, a broad shouldered, strong framed young man. But as Herc watches him walk away, he can't see anything but the boy that Chuck once was.

///

They've never been good talking yet they've always had an uncanny ability to know what the other is thinking. Herc doesn't know if this is the effect of the drift or if its the reason why they're drift compatible.

But he knows the exact moment that Chuck finishes getting ready. He comes down the hallway as Stacker and Chuck are walking toward the drive room and stops short when he hears.

"...as for you. You'll easy. You're an egotistical jerk with daddy issue, a simple puzzle I solved from day one."

The pit inside him grows into a chasm.

There have been many times in their years of association that Herc has disagreed with Stacker, over bureaucratic things, funding matters, but this is the first time that he's want to punch the man.

"But you're your father's son, so we'll drift just fine."

Is a sentiment that no pilot should have toward their co-pilot. Herc doesn't understand the exact science behind the neural connection or even why so few people are drift compatible. He's been told many times that it's based on mutual trust, mutual respect, mutual understanding. 

But nothing of what Stacker had just said implies he feels any of that with Chuck. 

Striker is fierceness in motion in his and Chuck's hands. But even with all of Stacker's experience, without true compatibility, Striker is nothing more than an oversized, lumbering tank of metal. Darker thought overtakes in his mind when he hears Chuck's response. "Fair enough." 

It's pride that he feels at Chuck's professionalism and an overwhelming grief because he knows that few things in Chuck's life had ever been fair.

///

"I just don't want to regret all the things I never said out loud."

"You don't need to. I know them all." He's grateful that Chuck spares him the need to give voice to the thoughts in his head.

How can anyone expect him to say goodbye to someone who's equally a son and a partner, the other half of his mind. And send him out to there to share the mind of a dying man and his icy disdain. Go to the breach, drop the bomb, return back. Simple. Except Herc knows through experience that it's always the simplest operation where things go wrong.

"Hey, handsome." Chuck bends down to kiss Max goodbye.

He can see it, Chuck and Stacker's barely existent drift only holding steady due to sheer stubbornness and experience. It's dark at the bottom of the ocean, low visibility. Chuck would panic, he knows. If he was there, he would calm him down. Remind him all their practice runs.

_But he won't be there, he can't be there._

Odds weren't great for them even with Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon but now it's down to just two jaegars versus two kaijus. But what if there's another kaiju? No matter how much Gottlieb loves his mathematics, there is no absolutes in real life. What if...

Chuck is looking at him with wet eyes, waiting for him to say something, anything. 

But if Herc puts to word what he really want to say, are they strong enough to bear it it? 

Then Chuck is walking away again. 

He knows what he has to do for the both of them.

"Stacker!" He calls out and Chuck stops.

"Stacker! That's my son!" He needs him to know this. To know _why_ he's doing this. 

"That's my son you're planning on taking down there with you on some half-assed suicide run. Finish this damned mission yourself!" 

Chuck looks at him in disbelief, "Dad?"

"We don't owe them anything."

"But the mission. Striker..."

"It's just a machine, Chuck, without the both of us in it." He knows how much Striker means to Chuck; he's seen the boy give that hulking gray piece of metal smiles that he's only shown Max and himself, on very rare occasions.

"It's up to you Chuck." He says quietly and jiggles Max leash a bit. A coward's life with the living or a hero's glory with a machine; Herc hopes that him and Max are enough.

But his doubt is unfounded because Chuck is turning back towards him. 

"STOP!" Stacker shouts but Chuck doesn't listen until he's back at Herc's side. 

"I don't want to go," Chuck confesses quietly.

"I don't want you to go." And its the truest thing he’s ever said.

Herc sees movements out in the corner of his eyes. "Do you know what you're doing? Herc, you know what will happen if we don't do this. The world is depending ..." 

"Damn the kaiju! Damn the world" He yells and rabbit punches the closest guard that's trying to surround them. The movement jiggles his broken arm but the flare of pain only fuels his fury.

He yanks the gun out of the man's, just another boy really, hand and points it at Stacker's general direction. He knows without looking that Chuck has similarly disarmed another guard.

"He's my son, Stacker. Find someone else or pilot the damned thing yourself," and sprays a hail of bullets up at the ceiling, knocking out the lights. 

He hears shouts of confusion and Stacker yelling 'seal the building.'

Chuck grabs Max into his arms. They run. 

///

They avoid all the crowded open areas. Most people are at already their station preparing for the final operation, so the corridors remain mercifully empty. Then Tendo's voice comes through the intercom faster than Herc would have liked. 

"This is a level 1 security alert. Repeat a level 1 security alert. The Hansens have gone AWOL. Approach with caution."

Tendo waits a beat then pleads. "Herc, Herc stop. We need to finish this. All these years, what we have worked so hard for. It's just one more mission to complete. The last one. We need Chuck, we need Striker Eureka to finish this."

Then Stacker's voice comes on, rage coloring every word. "You're a damned coward Hercules Hansen! A damned bloody coward for running away now! I've judged you wrong all these years, called you a friend. But only a coward would run away from all this now."

Herc swallows down the bitter bile in his throat. He looks at Chuck, who gave him a weak shaky grin; Herc can see the tension behind his eyes. The boy hates running away from a fight. They both do. But this is one that they need to. 

They quickly make them way to a small side door that leads to the helipad. "Find a way to open the door," he tells Chuck before he punches the intercom button. He owes Tendo this much at least.

“What is it that you’ve always said, Tendo. A man’s got to do what a man’s got to do. I have to do this! That’s MY son he’s planning on taking down there with him on his suicide mission. You've ran the simulation projections, tell me if you’re willing to send your son down there. I won't have Chuck give away his life for this half-assed mission. We’ll serve but not stupidly." And just because he can, "Have you told any of them? Stacker's secret."

"Herc," Stacker warns ominously but he says it anyway.

"Have you told them that they’ve been entrusting their lives to an ill man? A man who should be in a hospital instead of running such a high risked operation."

Apparently not because he can hear more clamoring confusion from within LOCCENT over the intercom. 

He throws Chuck a satisfied grin that Chuck returns except he’s entire demeanor changes when Raleigh Beckets’ voice comes over the intercom

"Chuck." Becket sounds weary.

Herc is expecting taunts toward Chuck and he braces for them. 

"I don’t care," Chuck grips his good hand. "I don’t care what they call me. I want to live." He dissembles the electronic lock with nimble fingers. 

They stumbles out the doorway before they can hear what Raleigh has to say.

///

Unlike the inside of the Shatterdome, the helipad is absolutely swarmed with activity. 

Judging by all the preparation and Stacker’s desperation, they must have seen signs of the double event.

Good, because that will mean less resource to pursue them. The PPDC is no longer a military unit but he knows that Stacker has managed to amass a surprising amount of resources. Guards and civilians crowd around the helicopters, getting ready for the drop.

He points to one of the far off choppers that’s on the fringe of all the activities. Chuck nods and they both duck down low to sneak around the crates of equipments. Helicopters are starting to depart left and right, and lost in the general chaos, the lone guard never hears them coming. Chuck takes him down quickly, a quick choke hold from behind.

They nods to each other and climbs in. Herc does the preflight check as quickly as possible while Chuck holds onto Max and keeps a look out 

"We got to go." Chuck points out to his right and Herc sees a technician pointing them out to some of the guards. 

He sees a group of guard running toward them, guns drawn, shouting at them. But then they’re off the ground and away. And with all the rotor noise, he can’t tell if they’re being shot at or not. But no one pursues them into the sky.

///

It’s been a while since he’s last handled a Sikosky copter but he gets the hang of it soon enough. Has to.

"Shit." They really fucking did it. 

"We just..." Chuck looks as shocked as he feels, pale, red eyed, holding Max tightly on his lap.

He thinks about the moment back in the corridor, watching Chuck walk away from him to certain death, almost losing him before he could have said anything. So he tells him now.

"He was wrong. Stacker was wrong about you."

"Dad." 

"You're more than what he said. You're worth more than that. I choose you, Chuck. _I choose you over the world_ , " he tells him quietly and waits for the words to sink in. 

Chuck buries his tear stained face into Max’s fur and nods, shoulder shaking every once in a while.

They fly away from Hong Kong in the exact opposite direction from the breach. The setting sun dyes the sky the color of blood.


End file.
